Recipe - Pepernoten

It's almost that time of year again!

The time of year where 'Sinterklaas' enters the country here in Holland, together with his jolly, black helpers. They'll hand out candy, pepernoten and gifts to kids and it'll be happyness all around!

Well, except for the fighting about his jolly, black helpers. There's the small camp of people that say it's discriminating and they cause some trouble to ruin the joy a bit. It's all way too blown up, honestly. Both sides have very black and white views and refuse to understand the other, even a little.

For me, I'm all for keeping the helpers as is. As a kid, I never once thought those helpers to be any less than the white bearded man himself. Honestly, that big, bearded man was kind of scary while his helpers were quite awesome! They were the ones who gave us candy after all! Besides, it's tradition and the only ones pointing towards a slaver's past is the very small camp against it. And isn't there always a small camp against anything whatsoever? People never, ever all agree.

I never, in my entire live, thought about the helpers as part of any race or as slaves. Never! Not until they starting whining and honestly, I still don't look at it like that. They are the helpers to 'Sinterklaas', like the little elves are for Santa. They are their own kind and I don't compare them to any other race. They are 'Zwarte piet' and they are unique. They are funny and kind and they give candy.

Anyway, it's an annoying discussion here in the Netherlands and it takes away so much from the children's holiday. It's such a sad thing and I wish things could just go back to normal. I'm sure the discussion will be strong again this year though.

Well, all of that stuff doesn't take away from the fact that this time of year is awesome, because of 'Pepernoten'! They are awesome little snacks and so tasty. They have all sorts lately! Covered in chocolate, but also with different flavours.

Last year, I decided to make my own. My own way ofcourse. I shared this recipe before, but it'll be about a year of scrolling back and we all know what a pain that is here. So I'm sharing it again, because we should all eat this again this year!

This is enough for two oven trays and this time, I decided to keep half of the dough in the freezer, instead of baking twice. I figured we could enjoy it twice like this! I wonder how well it'll keep in the freezer, so this will be a good experiment. Seeing as I use coconut oil, I'm sure I'll have to warm it up outside of the fridge to make it flexible enough the second time around.

Well, enough talking. Here's the recipe!

Ingredients
To fill two oven trays
– 100g Coconut oil
– 50g Honey
– 50g Apple syrup
– 250g Self-rising flour
– 3 Tbsp cookie spices
– 2 Tbsp milk
– Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Heat up the coconut oil so it’s completely molten. Let this stand until it's cool enough to the touch.
2. Mix all the ingredients.
3. Preheat the oven to 180C.
4. Put a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray.
5. Roll the dough into small balls and spread them around on the baking tray. Push them down a bit, so they’re a little flattened.
6. Heat them in the oven for about 18 minutes (Check once in a while, because this might differ a bit per oven).
7. Lay them out to cool off for a bit, before eating.

Enjoy!

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